Broadback Trip Log
July 9th, Getting there...
We left at 9 (aimed for 7, oh well), we drove and drove with both groups. Stopped in Abitibi - Temiscamingue to drop off our food for the food drop. Stopped for dinner at the Pizzeria in Lebel-sur-Quévillon while guides went to Chibougameau to get the permits. People were BMXing (locals). Played a great game in the van on the way to Chibougameau to meet the guides. In Chibougameau, stopped at a restaurant for peeing. Owners were none too pleased. We all drove along la Route du Nord and dropped off the Explorers. They were to be seen 30 days later. From then on was the most exhausting part of the drive. While Carl was sleeping, the back window broke, and he didn't even wake up. When he did wake up, however, he politely asked in his tired confusion if anyone wanted him to close the back door. Then we drove into the mine thinking it was our put-in. Everyone was asleep except the guides and drivers. It was about 3:30 am and as it turns out, we were not in the right place, and we spoke to an employer of the mine to see if he could help us. He really didn't know maps very well, or the region in general. We leave the mine, retrace our steps and we find the put-in. By this time, it's light enough to set up camp without flashlights. We took our group pictures and Robb and Bri drove away. We all got to bed, finally, at 5 am.
-Group
July 10th, Day 1
Woke up sweating in our tents. Glad to see that it was a nice sunny day here up north. It was actually very surprising. We had a slow wake-up and ate french toast for breakfast. The path to our put-in was pretty marshy, it was by a swift that really launched and released us into our trip. We could then really say that we were finally ON trip. We paddled through a lake and got to our first rapid - it was a really fun one. We hit 3 more rapids, one of which resulted in a wrap and another of which resulted in chasing gear down the river (we also skilfully lined some hardcore parts). At the end of the rapid that gave us some trouble, there waited a beautiful, open, flat, nice campsite. It is lichen filled, has a panoramic view, and is full of dry wood. We named it 'tent on a rock'. The guides tent got set by the campers on the top of a small rock as a joke. On the clothes line, Christine's shirt was suspiciously surrounded and crawled over by horseflies. We ate soup and grilled cheese for dinner, but were all still hungry so we had dessert.
- Group
July 11th, Day 2
This morning I woke up first and woke up my tent and then all the WLPs. They didn't seem too tempted to get up...The weather was really nice again this morning and it stayed like that all day. Getting ready and on the water took a while again today (maybe tomorrow will be faster? :) ) We had a few rapids this morning...nothing too big (but big enough to get a boat stuck on a rock...in the first 5 minutes of the day!) After this little episode, we kept trucking until lunch - Opening the barrel, someone, (we won't mention who, ok, Dana...) dropped our metal ring in the water - Yes, that is correct - the ring that keeps stuff IN the barrel and water OUT! Nick tried to go get it but couldn't reach the bottom of the river so we invented a little rope system that seems to work well - fingers are crossed!
Total today we paddled 23 km, which is pretty good for day 2 of trip! Everyone got to stern (and seemed quite comfortable in that position!)
Nice team work, getting dinner ready - mmm...stir fry.
Oh, we picked names for our gift exchange today and I can't wait to start making my present!
Tomorrow we will start the "Question of the Day", and this is mine: "What is it about canoe tripping that makes you want to come back year after year?"
Oh-I was forgetting...we are now officially on the Broadback River! Yahoo!
- Zab
July 12th, Day 3
This morning I woke up to a water drenched tent. Apparently the Eclipse made by EMS doesn't work all that well in the rain. Sleeping bag...damp...all of my clothing...cold and wet. This morning was indeed a harsh reality to face. I told myself to just get up and walk outside so I could realize that I would be getting very wet anyway. The whole "getting up" process took about 10 minutes.
After I finished packing, breakfast was already prepared. I wolfed down my granola with raisins and was ready to roll. We loaded the canoes and left our campsite.
Today my canoeing partner was Tanya and I was in the bow. Things went very smoothly with "T" in the stern. The rain subsided for a while and it was very peaceful. There wasn't all that much talking in my boat but both of us were very happy because we shared a Zen moment together. The landscape all around is vivid and beautiful.
After the calm, which lasted a good 2 hours, it started pouring again. This time with lightning. We headed for a small island and set up a tarp for shelter and prepared delicious wraps for lunch. After an hour or so there, we headed off again.
(I forgot to mention that I woke up this morning with a swollen bug bitten face which could only be described as "horrifying" - Pat)
We hit some nice whitewater and unfortunately hit a nice hole which swamped our boat as well. Bailing was quite necessary. Eventually we hit a rapid which was un-runable because of the rock situation. Joelle slipped on a rock and hurt her knee but Zab had it patched up in no-time. As of right now, "it still hurts but whatever" She's a tough girl.
We finished paddling early today and found a nice campsite because people were really tired. After I set up my tent, I've been chillin' for a while and dinner is being prepared. I gotta say, today was a good day.
- Jesse
July 13th, Day 4
Well today started off nicely except my eyes were all swollen. My sleeping bag was quite damp but what can you do. Breakfast was absolutely delicious - Potatoes, cheese and onions, GREAT. Good job Jesse and Cole. It took a while to get going but quicker than yesterday. Today my canoeing partner was Nick. It was fun, I brushed up on my sterning skills, Oh Yeah. Jesse and Nick had a silence competition for a Power bar. Nick spoke first when his seat broke. I forget what he said. Well, today was a wonderful day of paddling and we covered about 20 km. Now we're all chilling at a very nice campsite on a hill. Oh yeah, I lost my knife and I wasn't too happy about that. I'm very much looking forward to pasta dinner and bed, yup yup. If I was a robot I would say 110111000110100110110111001110001100011100111001101011011.
- Pat
July 14th, Day 5 - By Da Beach
Today brought a brutal awakening due to a harsh sleep, especially for Dana who was forced into the fetal position around a rock in order to sleep. Maybe as her tent partners, our punishment was enduring her newfound punisher snoring. A breakfast of couscous and bananas was served and enjoyed by few unfortunately - it was an acquired taste, one which almost came back out of Pat's mouth. The group took to the river and paddled, back in civilization only days after their departure. The group saw fishermen, natives, park rangers, and Nick tried to speak french. An awesome pasta salad lunch was enjoyed and the Tripper seat managed to break again. A push day turned into another awesome "push day". Carl (me) and Cole pushed harder than anyone and will definitely leave the trip more ripped than anyone as well. Snack time turned into an interesting adventure as a Nutrigrain took a dive under some rocks, never to be seen again. The group pushed themselves almost their entire distance and landed on an amazing beach campsite. The Tripper was repaired, the group went for a swim on the sandy shore, and another great meal of chilli and corn bread was stirred up. Personally, I took a long awaited nap. Spoons also began to be created by the fire. Overall, the trip has really began to come together and I think people are going to have a great time in the next bunch of days. OH YA!
QOD: If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be, why, and how would it affect you and your surroundings?
- Carl
July 15th, Day 6
Having some difficulty breathing, we woke up in a very hot and humid tent. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast of scones, even though (according to Cole), people don't REALLY like scones, but they eat them anyway. We started our day of paddling off with a couple of games; "The Paddle Game", and "Bang", followed by a stretching session lead by Jesse - we found ourselves in some interesting positions. In terms of rapids, today was absolutely amazing. Our first big one was filled with huge waves, and I must say with Christine sterning, our boat took an awesome line. After a slight miscommunication, Zab had the marvellous idea of giving everyone a river sign, so that hopefully we will be able to better communicate with each other in whitewater. After much debate, and many demonstrations from Nick (while standing on the gunnels of course), as a group we came up with a personalized sign for each and everyone of us. These ranged from both hands above the head forming ears for Nick, because of his uncanny resemblance to a chipmunk (thanks Carl), to standing up and slapping your behind repeatedly for Tanya, because...look, not everything in life has to be logical alright?
Another rapid we ran resulted in us canoeing down a very narrow, bendy creek, with a pretty fast current - this proved to be quite entertaining. A few canoes dumped today but fortunately much was learned by all. We covered quite a bit of distance today (almost 30 km), and needed to stop at one point before lunch for some energizing, slightly damp gorp. A couple of rapids later, we had apples, pita and hummus for lunch, and had a fun little game of "guess how far we are from the power lines". Yeah that's right, I won. Yeah that's right, I can be cocky.
We learned today that maps can be quite deceptive, for ours told us we would be camping at a beautiful sandy beach, but alas, the beach was nowhere to be found. Instead though, we ended up camping at a wonderful campsite filled with naturally occurring paths to walk on, and a nice big hill. We were treated with a gorgeous sunset, and a wonderful, yummy meal of lazy perogies. Today, we lost Pat's hat and Jesse's shirt, but found some awesome rapids, some beautiful reasons to laugh and be happy, and Tanya's Nalgene.
- Dana
July 16th, Day 7
Today was another slow wake up, with repeated orders to get up followed by us rolling over and snoring. But we eventually managed to drag ourselves out of bed to enjoy the delicious new breakfast named fruit cobbler. This is basically half cooked dough with fruit. It was delicious. The map promised a 6 km stretch full of rapids, so we were all excited. The map, however, was old and made by a hippy from the 70's, and was slightly off. Our class 3/4 rapid turned out to be a large swift, and one of the class 1s had obviously rearranged itself into a monstrous haystack, resulting in one dump. But the rapids were awesome, and despite a momentary rain, the morning was great. Lunch was tuna sandwiches, using a fantastic mixture of tuna and mayo in a bag. The result was very good. Anyway, we did a few more small rapids, until we came upon a very wide, enormous rapid. It was extremely buggy, and everybody including the guides broke down and scourged on mine and Christine's bug spray, which is nearly done with. We got through the rapids with a few carry-overs, but no portages! Yay! We camped at the bottom of the rapid on a large rock. Nick tried some fishing again, but obviously failed. I think fly fishing in a rapid is probably not the best way to catch dinner. We had mac and cheese for dinner, and it was another fabulous day.
- Cole
July 17th, Day 8 - Happyland / The Island with the Pooper Over There
We woke up a little earlier to prepare for our big 45 km day, we had granola for breakfast which made our departure really fast. This morning Nick led the stretches and started with a booty dance. We left the Reserve Faunique and did 26 km before lunch which was tortillas, peppers, cheese, mustard and salsa. I wasn't really hungry before, but after lunch I was starving; we started our first portions with fair amounts of dressings 'Tanya "What is 30 divided by 10 guys?"', and somehow ended up with 4 pieces of cheese (which Tanya was responsible for) and miniscule slivers of peppers for our seconds. We paddled some more and after a long distance that went by very fast we arrived at a crazy R6 rapid. After scouting, Zab and Tanya came back with long faces saying that it would be a horribly long and difficult bushwhack. So we started what we thought would be a hard portage by looking for the machete, but Carl, unable to find it and in a high of adrenaline, went running and screaming into the forest holding two paddles. Tanya and Zab, laughing to death, watched Carl run into a highway of a portage trail, not realizing what it was and screaming "Left or right?! Left or right, fast!!" It turns out that we were lied to and that in fact there was a four by four trail for passing motor boats around the rapids. We paddled a little more and found a great group site on an island with a pooper on the other shore. We had a great supper of quesadillas and we talked around the fire. Today was a good day :)
QOD: What is the nicest thing you have ever done for someone?
- Christine
July 18th, Day 9 - Duff Day #1
Today we got to sleep-in. Man, it was good. I woke up to the sound of Cole, Dana, Christine, and Carl laughing and swimming. It was super hot in the tent, so Zab, Tanya, Joelle and I dragged ourselves from the tent and head to the other side of the island to start on breakfast. Cole and Carl teamed up to make cherry pancakes. They were delicious!!
After breakfast we (the whole group) split up and cleaned the barrels, cutlery, and boat repair. Christine made the staunchest duct tape airbag repair job ever, and learned all about fixing canoes.
While waiting for the barrels to dry, Zab, Joelle, and Cole headed down river to swim in a rapid. I paddled over to take a poo, while Pat struggled to make his way back. He was alone in the Tripper and floating downstream. He leaped from the boat, onto an island and attempted to paddle upstream. We ate hearty soup, it was awesome. Oh yeah, I tried to fish yet again, you can guess the outcome of that little trip.
Everybody got a chance to get feed back from the guides, and a chance to feed back their ideas or opinions.
We had some of the best trip pizza I have ever eaten in my entire life. Mm mm good. We also spent a good while talking around the fire about the question of the day and what the nicest thing anybody has ever done for us. We had scrambled brownies and hot chocolate. Once again, we were all gifted by the Broadback River Gods and got a beautiful Northern light show.
Tomorrow we're back on the river to our next adventure.
- Nick
July 19th, Day 10
Waking up this morning felt pretty early considering how much we slept yesterday. Carl and Tanya prepared breakfast for us: cranberry scrambled muffins. Some of us had trouble finishing our bowls because they were so full, but I surprisingly ate more than Jesse by taking it for the team. Zab and I unflagged our bathroom path after paddling to it. We warmed up for the stretch by playing a fast moving game of Never Ever Have I Ever, and then Pat led a hilarious group stretch that had us laughing so hard that we pre-worked out our abs for the day. We paddled sixteen kilometres but it felt like less since we've done some really big days already. We had some C1s and CIIs before our lunch of pasta salad which we ate rafted up. We all passed out drifting after lunch, knowing that we had the time to do so. So we are camped on a relatively small island again. It's really nice and full of driftwood. We are sadly collecting aluminums cans, helping to leave no trace on the island. There's a cabin on shore across from our island, and all of us except Christine went to visit it. It was amazing. We were looking for expiry dates trying to figure out the last time someone had been there. It felt like we were archaeologists an it was really fun. For dinner we had carrots and chick peas and rice. Everybody liked it and it's a good meal to add to the trip recipe list. Today was Nick's day for the Two Minutes. Jesse fell in the water washing his dishes. Tonight is the first night that we are switching tents.
-Joelle
July 20th, Day 11
Today we woke up to a fine mist covering the lake and an overcast day. Camp got packed up pretty fast, and we ate another fantastic meal of hash browns with cheese. After breakfast things slowed down; Carl, Joelle and I went for a poo run to the shore which took awhile. When we got back we began some community service and picked up all the old fusty cans of breakfast orange drink and the rubber boots and the glass bottles. When everything was finally packed up, we brought the heaping bag of garbage back to where it came from: the old busted up cabin. At last we could start paddling for the day. We passed another cabin--one that had a big tower and was definitely more frequently used than the other one we saw yesterday. From there we got to a class III rapid that we could have portaged, but we found a different channel to run that had a fun little drop and some good manoeuvres at the bottom.
This poured out into the Baie du Corbeau which had a nice little headwind for us to paddle into. Isabelle shrieked with excitement at the sight of a beach on a nearby shore that we could camp on, but as we paddled closer we could see that it was actually tiny and not suitable for camping on at all. The group decided to move on to another campsite marked on the map about a kilometre away. This campsite turned out to be an old native campsite with old wood structures and lots of garbage. However bad it sounds, it was actually all right and pretty spacious, so we decided to stay here. Christine, Dana and Cole found a cool mossy area behind the campsite, so we all decided to go for a walk back there. We found some mysterious footprints and followed those for awhile, then Christine, Pat and I went back to start dinner and set up camp. Pat and I startled a porcupine up a tree and it stayed there for quite a while.
Later on, a motorboat with a guy in it appeared in the distance, headed straight towards us. Zab, Nick, Joelle and I nervously went over to meet him, and he turned out to be a really nice fishing guide who worked for an outfitter called Bushman. We chatted with him for awhile, and Zab just happened to ask if she could go fishing with him. He agreed and came back fifteen minutes later with more fishing rods and more seats in his boat. After a found robin of rock paper scissors and evens and odds, Carl got to join Nick, Zab and the Bushman in the boat. The rest of us made macaroni and waited with baited breath for our main course of Walleye, which arrived a couple of hours later. Nick and Carl expertly gutted the fish on a dirty piece of plywood and we fried our two fish on the fire.
Knowing we had an incredibly early wakeup ahead of us, everyone went to bed as soon as possible. What an eventful day.
QOD: What is one regret that you have had in your life thus far?
-Tanya
July 21st, Day 12: "Crazy Little Tiny Windy Beach at the End of the Portage From Hell"
What a day! Where do I start? Well, maybe at the beginning...woke up this morning, I'd like to say bright and early but it was before it got bright. It was definitely cold though! Ah...the joy of having frozen wet socks, dry bags, and really cold water! So, we got on the river before the sun came up and it was such a beautiful sight! The fog slowly disappearing and giving way to the sun...
What a long time ago that seems now! So, we crossed Lake Evans, which went pretty smoothly. The water was very calm and so was the wind, but now we all know that Lake Evans isn't always as calm. So, after the crossing, we stopped on a beach, Dana got lunch going-some good hearty soup. Tanya and I went to check out the portage. We weren't sure if we would find a trail or not, so we were very happy to find a yellow flagged trail. We followed it for quite some time and were pretty sure it would go straight to the other side of Longue Pointe. Surprisingly enough, it didn't go the whole way! So, the last big half of the portage (now known to us as the Portage from Hell) was a lot of bushwhacking and zigzagging through pretty thick bush. The day went by and we were looking forward to seeing a spot to camp and/or the end of the portage. What a good thing that we had all napped on that beach after lunch! But, even with that nap, we were all a little tired to say the least. And, that's partly why I was expecting people to be a little cranky, but everyone's spirits were still good...very good!
Okay, so we decided to carry the packs and the necessary barrels and went to the beach at the end of our newfound "trail". We had spaghetti and rosé sauce on our tiny windy beach (prepared by Tanya) and all headed to bed.
-Zab
July 22nd, Day 13: "Crazy Little Tiny Windy Beach at the End of the Portage From Hell Where the Moose Came Into the Snow After the Storm"
We were first woken up in the middle of the night by a crazy thunderstorm with bolts of lightning really close to camp. It was a Rainstorm From Hell at the end of the Portage From Hell. It got so intense that we had to sit in the lightning position for a couple of minutes and then it passed so we could go back to sleep for a few hours. So we got to wake up a little later than usual, and after a good breakfast of apple crisp, we got to finish carrying the canoes and a few barrels along the portage. After portaging through the second half of the portage, our freezing group hastily set up a tent where we all sat waiting for the wind to die down from Lake Evans. We waited and waited, talked, slept, and wrote letters, but the wind would never die down. After a pretty long while, eventually all ten of us fell asleep in the four person tent. It was really cold outside and out of great kindness; our four guides braved the cold and made us an excellent supper of lentils, potatoes and garden vegetable soup. We all went to sleep well fed and hoping to get off Lake Evans tomorrow.
-Christine
July 23rd, Day 14: "Carl's Best Friend Hill"
What a day! Today we all woke up at the crack of dawn to get a decent day of paddling in to make up for the lack of movement due to the hurricane yesterday. We covered a solid fifteen kilometres today, past the lake section and back onto a river like a river.
The only set-back of the day was a lining on river left which turned out to be unacceptable so we had to ferry back to river right after reconsideration. This whole process ate up a solid forty minutes. After continuing down a little bit, we came across the most exciting and fun rapid of the trip thus far.
This rapid shot you about fifty metres at an incredibly high speed over one really huge wave and some other smaller ones. It was like a wacky roller coaster ride. After Carl got soaked Zab laughed, but karma got her back because she tipped while peeling out of an eddy into the very fast-moving current. As of right now, Joelle is the only person who hasn't tipped in the whole trip.
We came across a campsite on a portage trail right before a waterfall, on the top of a hill...and here we are.
Booyah! YEEeeehaaaaww!
-Jesse P.S: The garlic bread appetizer before dinner darn tootin ROCKED!
July 24th, Day 15: "The Shiznit"
After a bit of a sleep-in, we all woke up and packed pretty quickly. We started paddling at the bottom of the enormous waterfall, and looking back at it, there was definitely more than a hint of awe in the eyes of many. For the first little while, the current was really strong from the waterfall, and we were moving quite quickly. Then the wind started...the day was filled with strong winds, lots of whitecaps and some huge waves. It was a tough paddle and a big push, but we made it. We stopped at a place where we thought the pilot would wee us, because we couldn't find the cabin on a beach that he had mentioned. We got out of the boats, and had some gorp while Zab and Nick went to look for the beach. While enjoying our snack, we marvelled at a few trees that had fallen over and pulled up a wall of earth and roots, revealing a very white rock. I found a clump of earth that looked exactly like a heart, and Tanya spotted one that resembled the Hindu god Ganesha. Not being able to find the beach, Zab and Nick returned and we set up camp. Most of us worked on our gifts while we eagerly awaited Dave and our food. While going through her things, Joelle realized that she had left her camera at our previous campsite. Nick kindly offered to paddle all the way back with her to get it, so after a wonderful lunch of hearty soup prepared by Tanya, they embarked on their backwards adventure. Meanwhile, the rest of us had a relaxing afternoon making gifts, and waiting for Dave. We heard two planes, but the results of both were quite anticlimactic, for neither of them were our dearest Dave. Finally, we heard a third plane, and we knew this was the one. We watched the plane land and float right up to shore. Dave hopped out, and we had a nice little chat while unloading the food. We also got a letter from the Explorers, and a few personal letters and packages. As he was about to leave, Zab subtly asked Dave if we could have a short ride in his plane, and he was happy to say yes. He was able to take three people, so we played rock paper scissors to find out who would go with Zab and Tanya. I was the lucky winner. The ride only lasted a few minutes, but it was an amazing experience. Seeing the river from so far above was absolutely beautiful, and extremely exciting. When we got back on land, we found that Carl, Christine, Pat, Cole and Jesse had raided the bug juice. We unpacked our food, and there were only a few carrots and peppers that had seen better days. Tanya got dinner started, and soon we all had delicious couscous in our tummies. Nick and Joelle got back just in time for dinner, and we were all happy to know that their journey was successful, and Joelle had found her camera. They were definitely tired (after paddling three times as much as the rest of us), but their spirits were still high. During our plane ride, we saw a wonderful beach nearby our current campsite, and decided to pack up and paddle there after dinner. That was probably the most beautiful paddle on trip thus far. There was a gorgeous sunset, and the sky was filled with pinks and purples. The water was so still, like glass, and the sky's reflection could be seen within it. We got to what turned out to be a fabulous beach campsite for our duff day tomorrow. Tents were set up, and a nice fire was started. We all enjoyed some new chocolate from the food drop, as well as hot chocolate. Speaking of chocolate, while waiting for Nick and Joelle, Pat decided to cook up some pudding, which we ate right from the pot. It was a very sweet day. Some went to sleep, but most of us stayed up talking around the fire, telling stories and enjoying each other's company. The day ended with the most spectacular show of Northern Lights I have ever seen. We could hear geese in the distance, and while looking up at the incredible sky, we saw a huge hawk fly over us. The lights kept on dying down and then surprising us again and again with their miraculous beauty. It was as if we were watching the evolution of nature's most vast, thought-provoking painting. It was an amazing ending to an amazing day. I think it is safe to say that today is going to be remembered by all of us, for years to come, if not forever.
-Dana
July 25th, Day 16: Duff Day #2
Today we finally got a real sleep-in. Or at least some of us did. Too bad Zab is addicted to the sunrise and boldly threw me out of the tent at the crack of dawn to warm her with a fire while she relaxed and gazed at the sky. But eventually, Nick cooked up some superbly golden pancakes and we all enjoyed a fabulous and filling breakfast. The apple cinnamon sauce Zab concocted was delicious. Soon after breakfast, we started working on our sauna. We went on an enormous wood run, and the crazy Americans got to work on the bigger logs with a blunt axe, which was thankfully sharpened at some point. The rest of us had to dig a large pit with nothing but paddles. It's easier than it sounds. Finally, the sauna was completed, the rocks were hot, and we had all just scarfed down some cauliflower and cheese hearty soup. It was time to steam. We all piled into the sauna and the rocks were brought in. Water was poured onto the hot rocks and we all steamed. Everybody went around and gave their good wishes to somebody (or some people) and then ceremoniously poured some water onto the rocks. It was very nice. We soon scurried out and dove into the water, then back into the sauna with another batch of hot rocks. We all exfoliated with some uber-hygienic Northern Beach Sand. The whole experience was repeated a third time, and we all ended up feeling much cleaner and more relaxed. An outstanding sauna. It was time to get on dinner. We had fried "mixed grain balls" on top of pasta with a mushroom sauce to finish it off. Very fancy and extremely French. I thought the sunflower seeds overwhelmed it, and I didn't really like it. But everybody loved it, so it was all good. Dinner was followed by an enormous debate on what we should have for dessert: rice crispy squares or popcorn. We had a vote and were split down the middle. Dana made a fiery and energetic speech vouching for popcorn, but her plan backfired and she managed only to push Carl away from her side. The vote was swayed and the squares were made. Delicious. All of us went and sat in the tent or awhile and the guides went and had some secret meeting under the tarp. It got later, and all of us went to bed happy and well fed. Another great day on the river.
-Cole
July 26th, Day 17: "Staircase"
After the wakeup, we all trudged out into the morning air. Wearing nothing but all my clothing, I was freezing cold and ready for a hearty breakfast of MUFFINS! Big D Levine and the JS from Maynard were the designated leaders of the day and got da' show on the road. Before leaving camp, we engaged in some quality "touch the knee" wrestling. Shortly after skedaddling from camp we met some plane dudes building a cabin who soon after took off literally metres above our heads! It was supremely awesome. Me and Patty Wells paddled, along with the others, for a good amount of flatwater (and too much videogame talk). Soon enough we reached our primary rapid: a class, ummm...4 to 5 to maybe 3, but probably 2. Anyways, lining was done after Mother Tripper couldn't stop hugging the rocks and then the new leads took a nice long scout for the rapidos. The group enjoyed gorp and sleep during the wait. Personally, I lucked out with a huge chunk of chocolate (guide gorp style)!! So we ran the Christmas Tree rapid hugging the left and it was surely one of, if not the funniest rapid thus far. A delicious meal of mouldy pita (what was left of it) and massive quantities of MUSTARD!! was thoroughly enjoyed by all. A chaser of Pats bug syrup was needed to wash down all the goodness. Briefly after lunch I had the most enlighting conversation with Pat which began with the word toque, and ended ten minutes later with evil Prank Day. The group continued their voyage down river towards the next rapid, which would also prove to be that night’s campsite. A little eddie hopping was done until we reached a ledge. Zab became the group’s guinea pig and provided a smooth test run. The others followed very nicely. Myself and Tratrick took the most challenging line (sketchiest!!!) but never the less remained relatively dry and upright in our boats. Immediately afterwards I bolted into the woods with the shovel to accomplish some long awaited business which had been seriously prolonged. It turned out to be the nicest poo of trip thus far. The scenery was beautiful. After I returned to the canoe, we ferried across the rapid to a snazzy campsite on a rock. We unloaded the boat and it was an excellent ending to an excellent day. As I was walking across a rock next to my boat, both of my feet slipped and I slammed my face against a barrel. It was ridiculously funny. It was like Real-TV or Americas Funniest Home Videos skits. The laughter was uncontrollable…it was stupendous. Camp was set up and a great dinner of Mac and Cheese a la Nick, was eaten. The group slowly went to bed under the bright stars. Me, Tanya, and Jesse chose to sleep outside under the stars. We roughed out the cold and ended a perfect day under the northern stars and lights.
- Carl
July 27th – Day 18
This morning we woke up, as we do every day. It was Pat and Christine’s day to lead. It started with Pat preparing breakfast – hash browns- helped by Carl. We played tag as a warm up. It was quite funny to see everyone running and their strategies. We then stretched and started our paddling day. I was at the bow of Cole’s boat. Although Christine told us to avoid a close by hole, we went right through it. Apparently everyone behind us thought we would swamp, but we made out just fine with a little bailing. We passed by a lot of non-existing rapids throughout the course of the day. We had pasta salad for lunch. Nick argued that we should not put too many spices in because it would ruin the mayo. Cole dropped the cheese in the bottom of the boat, but we still used it. We had a nap right after lunch, which was very enjoyable, but didn’t help us out in covering a lot of distance. We did not make it passed the highway bridge which we planned, but still mad a solid 30km. I find the campsite we’re at right now resembles a house…there’s a garage/vestibule when you arrive, then a sort of hallway followed by a kitchen, then the tents. All of that on a rocky island. Dana had a radiophonic voice. She could be telling stories for little kids on cassettes. Pat wanted to jump off the rock in the water but we all convinced him it was too shallow. Dinner was dumplings in soup. We all tried to not use and contractions when we were speaking for a while. We found this to be quite difficult and realized we used them a lot more than we thought. The sunset was beautiful, a nice big red ball of fire, with a long streak reflecting in the water….quite amazing. We tried to make haikus for the name of the campsite but it wasn’t too successful. We are all going to bed early so we can get ready for a big day tomorrow.
-Joelle
July 28th – Day 19
Well, what a day. We all woke up this morning to a big group shout of good morning and everybody got up pretty quickly. The leaders of the day, Cole and Carl, decided we should get everything ready and packed away before eating breakfast. Cole made some delightfully textured oatmeal and shortly after we got on the river. We were quite nervous about having a long string of class II rapids ahead of us, for fear of tons of scouting and lining, but the first few rapids were almost non-existent.
Then we came to a rather large so-called class II, and after much debate on whether to run it empty or full, or portage it, Zab and Nick ran it empty as a trial run. They ran back the trail to say we should all run it because it is very fun. So one by one, we all went down and everybody had a very successful run…although Nick and Pat dumped right on the eddy line while eddying out at the bottom. Oh well. Man, that was a really fun and challenging rapid.
Unfortunately, we spent way to much time at that rapid and the rest of the day, we didn’t really make enough distance. We had a very late lunch of refried bean tortillas and had to paddle on an extremely wide and windy section of the river for a few kilometres. We decided that the amount of energy we were putting into paddling was not sufficient to the distance we were making. We decided it would be best to just call it a day. Cole and I went to investigate a campsite, and it turned out to be pretty okay, so we stayed here tonight. Tonight is going to be a very easy night so we can get nice and rested to wake up with the Sun tomorrow and miss the headwinds. We are now eagerly awaiting a meal of paddle pasta, and hopefully we will be in bed at sunset.
-Tanya
July 29th – Day 20 – Christmas Day!
Yesterday, everyone agreed (Some more easily then others) to a really early start of the day to cover some distance before the wind picked up and slowed us down as much as it has been for the past few days! Our leaders today were Jesse and Pat…probably the two most “morningly” people on trip! So I woke them up and they made sure everyone else was going to get up (and fast!)and get moving. We had a quick breakfast of granola and cranberries, a short game of “bang” some stretches that Jesse asked me to lead and we were on the river! We covered our first 20km in a record timing! It was great to paddle without the wind for a change! After these first 20km, a class IV waited for us. Our ever so trustworthy map told us we should line it (we even head the choice of river right or left). After a quick glance from an above eddy we decided to head down to an eddy of river left we would line from there. Well, things don’t always go according to plans now do they! Tanya and Jesse went down first and the boils pushed them into an eddy on the right instead of the left. The two next boats went down and made it to the left – the fourth one also went (unintentionally) to the right – w/ a ratio of 2 and 2, Cole and Dana gave it a shot…and Yes!! Made it left. By then, Nick and Carl were downstream setting up safety and I was trying to figure out a plan for Tanya, Jesse, Christine, and Joelle. To make a VERY long story short, after a lot of thinking and running around (and waiting around for some and transferring messages to others) things got sorted out with only one lost paddle (Tanya’s (insert unhappy face)) and a map that went missing temporarily but we found it again! In this 5 hour period, Carl memorized the order and classes of the rapids we’ll encounter in the next two days…and we will all witness this…there are a lot!
Anyway, after some good pasta salad on a rock below this rapid (OH! And some chocolate too!) we kept going for the last 6 km we had left. We got here (which is a portage trail) to discover the most beautiful, awe inspiring campsite ever – so we decided that we had no choice but to celebrate Christmas here – so we decided to finish off our x-mas presents and cook up some crazy Christmas dinner. I was very happy with the turnout of the meal – mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, and cranberry sauce – MMMM! Still thinking about it right now. We then proceeded to the gift exchange – all the presents were SO cool! What a great day – It seems like so much happened – I think we all learned a lot (I certainly did!) ate a lot and I would say this was an incredible x-mas day – (insert smiley face here)
Oh I forgot to mention we decorated an x-mas tree with a lot of very nice things!
- Zab
July 30_Day21 “Five K” “,That Day Island”
This morning was a pretty early one, even though we partied it up after Christmas. I had to take a mega dump, but Joelle was taking a super long time. Eventually she returned with the shovel and Carl, Tanya, and I headed off to take our poos. I found a nice log to lean over, so I dug my hole there. Let me tell you, that was a fantastically satisfying poo. When I returned to the camp sight everyone was playing “Duck, Duck, Goose”. I joined in for two rounds and we started to stretch. We discovered with much surprise that Pat was wearing his underwear backwards. Even he had no idea. Oh that Pat.HAHAHA. We finished our portage and were on our way. Christine and Cole were the leaders of the day. Christine was in my boat.
We lined through a very small creek for the first rapid of the day. Then we came up to some very strong current which lead into a big class 2-3 rapid which we lined on the right. The rocks we super slippery and Christine fell and scraped her knee. Everyone did an awesome job of lining, we ran the bottom part. We paddled a bit more and then came to another spot that was easy to run on the left, So we did. Except the top part we lined around a big hole and paddled the rest. Tanya lost her paddle but luckily we found it in an eddy not to far down stream. We lined another spot and then stopped for a soggy “GORP” snack mmmm-mmmmm-good . After, we hit the river to our next rapid, where we all got out and scouted. Zab and Cole ran first then Tanya and I, we both dumped. The group decided to portage the rest of the boats. (Good call guys). After another portage we found a nice little island where we decided to spend the night. After an awesome dinner of lazy perogies we all went to chill in the tents. It started to rain and soon after thunder and lightning. We had to get into “lightning positions” , but luckily only for a short time. At one point lightning had struck kilometres away and Tanya’s hair stood on end, literally!!!
After a long chat Tanya and I fell a sleep in the eclipse. It was a little wet but we’ll live. Tomorrow will be a long day.
Nick
Q.O.D What does my fart smell like??
The afternoon brought some pretty continuous and high volume whitewater, which brought with it the need for a whole lot of lining. The longest and most brutal part was an approximately 2km- long stretch of class III, all of which had to be lined. That was pretty tiring for everybody. We got to end the day doing a really fun class III rapid with no serious obstacles, some big waves, and that emptied out into a big pool and more flat-water. We all had fun runs, but unfortunately Nick and Dana had a little run-in with a rock and a hole and … long story short, Nick’s barrel lid in still somewhere up there below that rapid. But it ;s okay, he didn’t lose any stuff, and we just emptied one of the barrels and put its lid on Nick’s. We looked for a campsite that was marked on the map one km down from the rapid, but it was not there in real life. So we paddled back up to a rock on the right side of the end of the rapid, and we set up camp there in the rain. I made a good meal of fussily Alfredo, and shortly afterwards we all went to sleep in wet tents, eager to begin another full-on day tomorrow.
-Tanya
Wow. Camping is fun but sometimes it can suck, but usually it<s awesome. Today, for example, we woke up to some wet clothes, wet tents and tasty oatmeal. We packed up camp in the damp and myself, Tanya and Cole went on a poo mission. We quickly realized that this “campsite” was not suited for our needs. We therefore paddled off ahead of the group to do our business and met up afterwards on a nice break from whitewater. The sun came up, and we all enjoyed some flat. Too soon the flat came to an end and the rapids began. Wow, that is the first time I have hoped for flatwater!!! We soon found a nice campsite where we spent the afternoon. We feasted on some couscous and other stuff in the couscous and it was great. That afternoon proved to be very awesome. Myself got a lightning bolt cut into the head while playing crazy 8 countdown with the Colester. Others (um… Zab) cooked up some scones, cornbread, and quick Italian bread and the power dinner. It proved to be an awesome afternoon. It began to rain but it couldn’t harsh our mellow (Pat’s line). We finished off our evening with some pillow talk then hit the hay. Oh Ya!
- Carl Nagy
Day 24
Breakfast was quick thanks to Zab who had made the scones the previous afternoon! While some were finishing their packing we played a fun game of “I’ve never…” and then stretched. We had a bunch of fun rapids, lunch was hummus and bread that again Zab had made. Later in the afternoon, there started to be lightning and thunder so we had to stop paddling and seat under a tarp in the forest while Nick puzzled us with riddles. Luckily the rain didn’t hit us and the thunder died down. Soon after hopping back in our canoes, came along a big rapid. We all scouted it and decided that river right wasn’t runnable. So we walked “Vietnam style”, for a really long time, up the river holding our canoes at our sides. After we ferried over to river left and found a “camp site”. While we, the WLPs, made camp and supper ; chili and corn bread (thanks Zab, again). Our super guides lined our boats down the crazy rapid and Zab thought of a super plan to get us past the rapid in the morning! We had time to eat supper and go to bed by the time the guides came back and wished us good night. Thanks guys !!!
- Christine
Day 25
This morning we woke up to some excitingly bad weather. The guides lost no time and quickly bushwhacked out to line the rest of the boats. We got up and started packing while Joelle cooked up some delicious fruit cobbler. Once everybody had eaten their fill, we put on packs and crawled through the dense bush to load up the boats. However, a PFD had been left behind and we spent about 45 minutes waiting as it was retrieved. I started out paddling with Tanya, but as we eddy hopped down the rapid, we were to bow heavy, and the boat was hard to steer and took on enough water to lower the water level of the river back to normal. We did some lining and had a snack and then we were on the 15km flat stretch. Me and Dana switched boats: I ended up in the bow of the tripper, and Dana ended up in a less bow heavy Esquif. Me and Nick sped along, and did a few small rapids. We enjoyed some pasta salad and squabbled loudly about the portions. Me and Dana switched back, and I steered with Tanya this time. We lined/ran another rapid and camped on a beautiful rock 2km from the end of the river. After a “power” dinner we all gave our thoughts on the trip (which were all great), and then made the trip bracelets. They were a beautiful green string with yellow and red. After, we dipped the bracelets in a mixture of water collected at the beginning of the river and the end of it. The trip will remain with us forever. A group hug and then bed.
- Cole
Day 26 –The End?
Today was the worst and the best day of my life. Let me clarify. Please.
The plan was to wake up with the crack of dawn to get ready for a push day up the last two km’s of the Broadback and 25 km’s up the Rupert Bay. We knew it would be quite windy and wavy but we weren’t expecting what we got.
We ended up sleeping later than expected… about 4 hours later due to vicious winds… So I put on my wet, cold, “dry” clothes and arose to 6oC weather. We ate some cream of wheat and took off. Finishing the Broadback was not a problem, but as soon as we turned onto the Bay, we were bombarded with the most vicious side/headwinds I have ever hit with a canoe. The reason I know it was 6oC was because 2km into the Bay, Zab called her mommy to get the weather report. Turned out it would be really cold and windy for a few days. So we pushed and pushed until I became robo-paddler. We stopped for a short snack 5km later then continued. After a long time and 10 more km’s we stopped for the biggest nightmare of our lives called lunch. Lunch consisted of splitting a bowl of couscous with our partners. Looking around at the others faces I saw depression, hypothermia, a glint of suicidal tendencies in everybody’s eyes. We could see the point of our destination so we gathered ourselves to push forward.
Paddling was the only thing keeping me warm and sane. I won’t lie, I did a little praying. The wind got worse and worse and I couldn’t stop to drink or pee basically all day because I would have backtracked a km per second. Push-push-push it… the destination grew closer, inch by inch, stroke by stroke.
After paddling for what felt like 100 km’s, we made it onto the shore of Waskaganish. Hugs were given, yells were released. We did it! We met the explorers, portaged our stuff and set up camp.
We then went to the lodge restaurant and ate the most satisfying meal of my life. Medium poutine, 2 milkshakes, a BLT and other scraps filled my belly. Best meal of my life.
SLEEP
P.S. I forget to mention the grey skies cleared and the sun poked through right at the end of the canoeing day. The light at the end of the tunnel.
- Jesse Smith
Day 27 !
We woke up really late to some delicious pancakes made by Tanya in Waskaganish. During that time Zab enjoyed a tour of the town with the tourism officer Raymond Blackned. He showed her the Cultural Institute where she met Jim, a cool guy who offered Zab to give us a tour of the Institute, home made cookies and tea. So Zab came back and gathered us, WLPs and explorers, to go and visit the institute. It was really fun, we got to learn about the Cree culture and history, it was super interesting and helped us understand better what is happening now with Cree towns such as Waskaganish.
After, some of us continued to tour the town and ended up at a chip stand. Then we all went for supper in a smoke house; we ate LPs and popcorn. We were all sitting around the fire and Raymond and his wife Emily came to chill with us. Then some went to bed and others waited for the van to arrive. In all it was a great and interesting day.
- Christine
Day 28
We woke up and the van and explorer were here with Robb and Jesse sleeping in them. SO we packed and had delicious banana couscous for breakfast. We got on the road and encountered a flat tire, a poutine in Mattagami, ice cream in Val D’or and 15 hours later sleep at Esprit. So here we are for two days preparing for a week on the Noire river and the end of our adventure.
- Christine and Zab
The Noire Trip
Wow… this trip went by so fast… It seemed to me like we were there for 2 days instead of 7! Here’s a short overview of the trip. We put in at the bridge at Km 61 on the Noire… everyone was very amazed at how narrow and small volumed this river was (in comparison to the Broadback!!). We floated/swam/relaxed for a few kilometres and we were now at the jump board where we were to spend the night. Most of us (Tanya has yet to jump!) swam across the river and jumped and swung off the Tarzan (or Jane!) rope. Good times. The next morning was a pretty lazy one and by the time breakfast had been made, eaten and cleaned up, everyone was ready to start their 72 hour solo. One by one, we dropped them off on the many beaches in this section of the river. With a small tarp, a sleeping bag and some food, they were off to experience something different to them. After being asked to say one word that came to mind when reflecting back on his or her solo, this is what everyone came up with:
We met up again after 3 days and paddled down to 50/50 where we duffed the next day. During our stay here, we played in the rapid (most people trying to solo), did some leadership and conflict management activities, had a birthday party (with a piñata made early that week!), chilled and ate really well.
The next day we paddled down to the Black River Inn after opting against the night paddle due to the water level and how shallow the water was. We camped at the take out and were picked up right in time at 9 o’clock the next morning by Fran and Myles.